2018 archive
A Civil Tongue Meets the Bully’s Pulpit 0
As Republicans and their dupes, symps, and fellow travelers clutch their pearls and fall upon their fainting couches, stunned that someone politely asked Sara Huckabee Sanders to dine elsewhere, Connie Schultz points out what the pearl-clutchers omit to say. A snippet:
Civility requires mutual respect. The Red Hen employees apparently understood this. If someone spends her days making clear her disregard for you and her willingness to harm you by parroting her boss’ bigotry, no one should expect you to act as if it doesn’t matter when she’s not talking into a microphone.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The hunt for politeness continues.
No doubt his bushy tail led attracted attention.
On a brighter side, the injury wasn’t serious, just stupid.
Welcome to America 0
Suffer the Children, You Reap What You Sow Dept. 0
When you stop enforcing the law and start enforcing the lawless, this surprises you how?
Borderline Disorder: Cruelty by Design 0
E. J. Dionne highlights the hypocrisy. A snippet:
Thus do Republicans compound their inhumanity with a lie. The only reason this is happening is because of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to incarcerate those who enter the country illegally and to take their young children away on the that’ll-teach-’em theory.
Sessions has spoken of this thuggishness with pride. . . .
“If you don’t want your child separated,” he said last month, “then don’t bring them across the border illegally.”
This is cruelty by design.
Ifs, Ands, and Buttheads 0
Jeremy Sherman offers a list of 15 “qualities of buttheads.” Check it out and see whether it reminds you of anyone in the news. Here’s three of them (emphasis in the original):
Reality is my slave: Since I’m the most realistic, I’ve earned the power to control reality. What I say is true is true. I can make it true through my absolute confidence.
Uber-umpmanship: In debate, I’m not only the final judge of all reality but of what’s admissible in debate. I’m the umpire in every debate I enter, and I’ll always rule in my favor. What you do is unfair. What I do is not only fair but righteous.
The ICE Cap 0
Putting a cap on the conversation.
Two men dressed in suits arrived on his San Jose front door step and identified themselves as agents from the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s Office. During the surprise visit, the pair began asking him questions about whether he tipped off Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in late February, according to a report by CBS News, who was in Schwab’s home at the time. (Schwab vehemently denies doing so–ed.)
(snip)
Schwab said he felt like the visit — more than three months after he resigned in protest of what he called lies from the Trump administration and ICE — was to intimidate him and he was “completely shocked.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice random acts of politeness.
The story goes on to say that the gun was being cleaned when it “accidentally” discharged. It left out the part about being too stupid to make sure the gun was unloaded while cle–never mind.
Aside:
Light bloggery today. I need a bit of a break. Watching a state fail is exhausting.
Plus, lightning took out one of my computers earlier this week, and the replacement arrived last night. I have a new toy.
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Better 0
Thom discusses out how the reasoning the Supreme Court used in allowing a baker to discriminate against gay couples directly contradicts the reasoning it used to uphold Donald Trump’s travel ban.
“The Face of the Nation” 0
Shorter Frank Harris, III: It’s not a pretty face.
It Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means 0
Mark Godwin, the author of “Godwin’s Law,” explains that it does not mean that you can’t (or shouldn’t) call someone a “Nazi” if, indeed, he or she is acting, well, like an actual “Nazi.”